Archive for September, 2009

When Immunex wanted to build a new company campus on cheap property located in an under-utilized area of Seattle’s waterfront they were granted a building permit with a couple quid pro quos that the city would build them an off ramp for $19 million and the the company would build a foot bridge. Otherwise, the property was going to cut off from the public a waterfront park… As a practical matter Immunex employees who wanted to ride the bus would have to dodge railroad trains at the busy grain terminal where ships load grain from railcars and silos.

The deal was the foot bridge had to remain open to the public….

So today while I am photographing a “public place” (a bridge on a public right of way required by the city of Seattle) and buildings visible from a “public place” on all four sides the AMGEN (owner of Immunex) security guard comes running up and tells me to stop taking pictures that “she can’t allow that sort of thing”. I handed her my business card and informed her that she no such authority. The buildings were visible from a public place and to leave me alone. She began jabbering into her radio and walked off.

UPDATE:

PR Calls 9-28…. Sorry… Our guard was just doing her job (maybe not as she should have been) and we know it’s a public place but we need to protect our intellectual property… (which as, explained, is all inside the building and not visible). Please remove the “horse’s ass of the week” denotation on your blog…

Ok, so we will.. for now.

Lets see what happens on a return visit at a future unannounced date.

Amgen’s website has photos both inside and outside the building that can tell you corporate espionage types a lot more than my photos can…

Beat the Guard back to the car…. I think she outweighs me so I am safe…

This next image is 3 exposures (at ISO 200 at around 10 seconds or more) processed by Photomatix into an HDR image. Then the image is reimported to Lightroom and processed more as a 16 bit Pro-Color Space Tiff… Then exported as a sRGB jpeg in 8 bit color for the web. The rest below are hand held single exposures… processed to sharpen and reduce noise in 1600 ISO exposures down to 1/8th second.

UPDATE: AMGEN STEALS $500 MILLION FROM TAXPAYERS:

EDITORIAL NY TIMES

Published: January 22, 2013

For a disheartening example of how intense lobbying and financial contributions can distort the legislative process in Washington, consider what happened to the “fiscal cliff” bill approved three weeks ago by Congress.

Senators who play a major role in federal health care financing were happy to help Amgen, the world’s largest biotechnology company, evade Medicare cost-cutting controls by delaying price restraints on a class of drugs used by kidney dialysis patients, including Sensipar, a drug made by Amgen. That provision was inserted into the final fiscal bill by Senate aides. Many members of Congress did not know it was in the bill until just hours before it was approved.

Although other companies will benefit financially from that delay, Amgen, which has 74 lobbyists in Washington, was the only company to lobby aggressively for the provision. The delay will cost the Medicare program up to $500 million over a two-year period.

The disturbing details were revealed in a report by Eric Lipton and Kevin Sack of The Times on Sunday. The maneuvering to exempt these drugs undercuts a five-year effort to change the incentives used to pay for kidney dialysis care. Previously, Medicare had paid providers separately for the drugs and for administering dialysis treatment, a system that often encouraged overprescribing.

But, in 2008, Congress reversed the incentives by requiring Medicare to pay a single, bundled rate for a patient’s dialysis treatment and related medications, starting in 2011. But certain oral drugs, including Sensipar, were given a two-year reprieve, to expire in 2014, from being included in that more cost-effective bundled system. The fiscal bill has now extended that exclusion for an additional two years.

Supporters of the delay — notably, Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat of Montana, who leads the Senate Finance Committee, and Orrin Hatch, of Utah, the ranking Republican on that committee — say it is needed to give the Medicare system and dialysis providers time to absorb other complicated changes in federal reimbursements for kidney care. But there is good reason to suspect other factors were involved as well. Both senators have political and financial ties to Amgen, as does Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, who exerted great influence over the fiscal negotiations and praised the Medicare provisions.

A top aide to Mr. Hatch, who was involved in negotiating the dialysis delay, previously worked as a health policy analyst for Amgen. The current lobbyists for Amgen include former chiefs of staff for both Mr. Baucus and Mr. McConnell. And the three senators have received substantial contributions from Amgen’s employees and its political action committee since 2007 — almost $68,000 to Senator Baucus, $59,000 to Senator Hatch, and $73,000 to Senator McConnell.

Amgen’s strong influence prevailed even though it had pleaded guilty just weeks ago to marketing an anti-anemia drug illegally and agreed to pay criminal and civil penalties of $762 million, a record settlement for a biotechnology company.

This dreadful episode is a classic example of the power of special interests to shape legislation and shows how hard it may be to carry out the reforms needed to cut health care costs.

The strange and inspiring tale of the Little Ballard House That Could took another bizarre twist Tuesday.

The cottage once owned by Edith Macefield, an elderly woman who turned down an offer of $1 million to sell her home to developers, has been sold to a company run by a motivational speaker who says he intends to raise the home into the air — both literally and philosophically.

King County property records show the home — now hemmed in on three sides by the five-story Ballard Blocks retail and office complex — was sold Tuesday to Reach Returns for $310,000. The seller was Barry Martin, the construction supervisor who became Macefield’s friend and caregiver before her death last June at age 86. Macefield left Martin the home in her will.

Greg Pinneo, the co-founder of Reach Returns, said he intends to remodel the interior of the home and then raise it to the height of the surrounding building, using a steel supporting structure. Underneath the home would be a two-level open space accessible to the public called “Credo Square,” Pinneo said, where for $250 to $5,000, people could etch their credo into tiles to be installed at the site. The home, meanwhile, would become the offices for Reach Returns.

“This endeavor is much more philosophical in nature than it is about real estate or construction,” Pinneo said. “It’s continuing to think deeply about what’s important. That’s what Edith put out there … to consider the great questions in life.”

The home was recently used to promote the Pixar movie “Up” — in which an elderly man ties thousands of balloons to his home to escape encroaching development and fulfill a lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America.

Barry Martin said one thing Edith didn’t want was for the home to become a memorial or shrine. He said that after talking to Pinneo, he felt the project was suitable.

“I like the fact that the house is going to stay,” Martin said. “It’ll make me feel good every time I drive by there. It will remind me of Edith. She’s been gone a year now, but she still touches me.”

Martin said he got to know Edith by being friendly when working on the project. Soon he found he was running her to hair appointments, and then making her three meals a day, taking her laundry out and doing whatever else she needed.

He said her legacy has sometimes been misinterpreted.

“Everyone liked to think she wanted to stick it to the man,” Martin said. “But she really just wanted to do what she wanted to do, and money didn’t mean anything.”

Martin said that when Macefield told him she was leaving him the house, she said he’d need it to put his two kids through college. With a son and daughter both in college now, Martin said, that’s where the money will go.

I made this picture (picture 1 RAW)… then worked it over in “lightroom” and delivered it since it looked pretty good (picture 2)… then the art director calls and says “… ya know… I know you can do better.. this looks like crap… fix it!”

Lightroom does not have the capabilities to fix this photo. So into Photoshop… 4 layers to start, defocus one, darken it, do shape shifting of the face on another layer, haircut on another layer, skin smoothing on another, sharpen eyes on another…. Then paint them layer masks until something happens…. Oh yeah I forgot the big one “lighting effects” on a layer saved the day from too flat a light… and the wrong color… the light was bouncing off a red wall totally queering the whole picture… take a look. (pictures 3, 4, 5, and 6 for the final).

You will notice on the bottom of the final picture I have included a gray scale. This is because most people have PC’s and have no clue as to how to calibrate the color, adjust themonitor or whether they have a 6 bit or 8 bit monitor. So I ask them how the grayscale looks if there is some kind of argument. I usually get a silent response…. and probe some more to find out the gray has turned green (out of whack 6 bit monitor) and it’s too dark to see separation in the lower shades… So I say it looks perfect on my end that;s as good as we can do… adjust your computer… see here too: browsers and photography